13 November 2008
The National Medical Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has awarded Monash University $6.4 million in Research and Practitioner Fellowships in its latest funding round -- a 31 per cent increase on 2007.
Professor Edwina Cornish, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) said the Fellowships are highly competitive awards that provide opportunities for outstanding health and medical researchers to undertake research that is highly significant to their field and will also be of great benefit to the health of Australians.
"Monash University is delighted with the outcome of this latest round of NHMRC fellowships. The fact that Monash researchers have been officially recognised in this way and encouraged to continue their work is a true testament to the high quality of research that is undertaken at this University," Professor Cornish said.
Ten Monash researchers were awarded Fellowships.
Receiving a Practitioner Fellowship, Professor Peter Cameron from the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine -- Emergency and Trauma Centre, aims to use the fellowship to continue his research into pre-hospital, emergency and trauma care. Research Fellowship recipient, Associate Professor Brian Cooke from the Department of Microbiology will use the NHMRC fellowship to further his research into the prevention of the most severe form of malaria, that currently causes half a billion infections per year and up to 3 million deaths worldwide. Understanding testicular cancer and male reproductive health will be the focus of Research Fellowship recipient, Associate Professor Kate Loveland from the Monash Institute for Medical Research (MIMR).
Other successful recipients include:
-- Associate Professor Stuart Hooper (Department of Physiology) for research into respiratory failure in newborns
-- Professor Shaun Jackson -- (Australian Centre for Blood Disease) will investigate platelet function and thrombosis
-- Dr David Nikolic-Paterson -- (Department of Nephrology-Monash Medical Centre) will further research kidney disease causes and cures
-- Associate Professor Moira O'Bryan (MIMR) will research to define key mechanism for sperm development and function
-- Professor Jeffrey Richardson (Centre for Health Economics) will do research into two areas: (i) measurement of quality of life and other social objectives for inclusion in economic evaluation; and (ii) investigate health system reform, performance of reform and options for Australia's Medicare
-- Professor Patrick Sexton (Department of Pharmacology) will focus his research on Gprotein coupled receptors to obtain a better understanding
-- Dr David Watkins (Centre for Cancer Research) will investigate basic science models of cancer.
"The researchers being supported by these fellowships have the potential to have an enormous impact on the health of Australians and people around the world," Professor Cornish said.
"Monash University would like to congratulate them on such a fantastic result and thank the NHMRC for their continued support of our outstanding researchers."
For additional information please contact Samantha Blair, Media and Communications on +61 3 9903 4841 or +61 439 013 951.
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